She added that scarcely a month goes by in which the Army does not break out in a new direction, open a new Institution, or attempt to attack a new problem; and this, be it remembered, not only in these islands but over the face of half the earth.  At present its sphere of influence is limited by the lack of funds.  Give it enough money, she said, and there is little that it would not dare to try.  Everywhere the harvest is plentiful, and if the workers remain comparatively few, it is because material means are lacking for their support.  Given the money and the workers would be found.  Nor will they ask much for maintenance or salary, enough to provide the necessary buildings, and to keep body and soul together, that is all.[4]

What are these women doing?  In London they run more than a score of Homes and Agencies, including a Maternity Hospital, which I will describe later, where hundreds of poor deceived girls are taken in during their trouble.  I believe it is almost the only one of the sort, at any rate on the same scale, in that great city.

Also they manage various Homes for drunken women.  It has always been supposed to be a practical impossibility to effect a cure in such cases, but the lady Officers of the Salvation Army succeed in turning about 50 per cent of their patients into perfectly sober persons.  At least they remain sober for three years from the date of their discharge, after which they are often followed no further.

Another of their objects is to find out the fathers of illegitimate children, and persuade them to sign a form of agreement which has been carefully drawn by Counsel, binding themselves to contribute towards the cost of the maintenance of the child.  Or failing this, should the evidence be sufficient, they try to obtain affiliation orders against such fathers in a Magistrates’ Court.  Here I may state that the amount of affiliation money collected in England by the Army in 1909 was L1,217, of which L208 was for new cases.  Further, L671 was collected and paid over for maintenance to deserted wives.  Little or none of this money would have been forthcoming but for its exertions.

Mrs. Bramwell Booth informed me that there exists a class of young men, most of them in the employ of tradesfolk, who habitually amuse themselves by getting servant girls into trouble, often under a promise of marriage.  Then, if the usual results follow, it is common for these men to move away to another town, taking their references with them and, sometimes under a new name, to repeat the process there.  She was of opinion that the age of consent ought to be raised to eighteen at least, a course for which there is much to be said.  Also she thought, and this is more controversial, that when any young girl has been seduced under promise of marriage, the seducer should be liable to punishment under the criminal law.  Of course, one of the difficulties here would be to prove the promise of marriage beyond all reasonable doubt.